Malfoy looks up on the wall at Elsbet's odd Muggle timepiece and sighs. He knows Snape will be leaving soon. Everyone's finished their sandwiches, though they're still munching on biscuits...he doesn't wait. There's so much he wants to do before Snape departs for Hogwarts.
"Ellie, let's have a look at the other things," he says, rising, and Elsbet does the same. Carefully, she takes out the other items, looking at each one as she hands them to Malfoy, who looks at them, then passes them to Therion, and so they go around the table. Remus and Snape pay the most attention to them, checking each one as if looking for some special clue or hint as to their origin. They're beautiful little things, little sculptures that can fit perfectly in a hand, carved and shaped from different kinds of stone. There's one that seems to have split along an unseen fracture, so instead of passing it along like the rest of them, Elsbet gives it directly to Snape. They all end up in front of Snape in fact, who, after examining them all looks up at Remus and finds him deep in thought.
"Ceremonial objects, I believe. And you, Lupin?" Remus nods and leans forward on the table. "I agree, Severus. Very old, from the feel of them. Ellie," they look up at her and Malfoy, "did you feel anything from them?" She smiles and picks up the blue, egg-shaped one. "That they were loved, and handled often, but I don't relate to stone the same as I do to wood. Unless...well, unless it was alive once." Malfoy looks at her. "Living stone? Ah, yes...fossils," she grins at him and tells him, "right, Lucius, fossils, and petrified wood. Otherwise, the energy in them flows differently to me." She then asks Dance and Shiver if they recognize the objects, and Dance says, "yes...well, not those particular ones, but I have seen some similar, and you're right, Severus, Remus, they were ceremonial."
He grins crookedly. "Been about five hundred years though." Everyone exchanges glances, even Shiver is surprised, but Dance tells them, "well, these are not quite so old, but after everything Ellie has said, I do believe that box had been there for at least three hundred years. The memory from the Yew wand was the detail that stuck," he taps his head, "but I'll tell you that The Great Mother would know more about it. And those Hearth Stones," he smiles widely, "it's a grand thing to see some of them again." Ellie picks the blue eggy one up again, then asks if it is safe to give them. He chuckles. "Well, they're yours, Ellie, it's already decided."
She smiles and nods. "I know, but...I mean, is it safe for me to give them away?" Snape asks her, "Oddbit, why would you want to do that? They're supposed to be yours, there's a reason--" she caresses his cheek and he bites his lip. "These are for happiness, right?" Dance nods slightly, then she strokes Snape's hair. She looks into his eyes and whispers, "the love in your heart wasn't put there to stay; love isn't love 'til you give it away." His eyes glitter suddenly and she kisses his forehead. "This box came to me because of love, yes? I love these pretty things, and I love each of you. There are eight of us at this table, and eight of these still whole. I would like each of you to have one. A gift of my love."
She tells Snape to choose first, and he takes the pale green one. On its surface are animals who seem to chase each other. A horse, a deer, a wolf, some creature he's never seen before, and a large bird aloft above them. He holds it tightly and counts his blessings. Malfoy chooses the bright amber-colored one that looks like a duck with its head tucked under its wing. He doesn't know what it means yet, but it resonates for him, so he holds it close to his heart. Therion chooses the brown stone that looks like...well, a stone. At least, until you really look at it; held up to the light, you can see what appears to be a heart inside the stone. Tonks takes the pink stone, shot through with red and speckled lightly in places with white. Its shaped like a flower, like a tulip, and she loves it. It makes her think of a time without the threat of a Dark Lord hanging over their heads.
Remus takes the oddest shaped one. It's a deep crimson in color, and when he first held it, it felt as if it belonged in his hand. He looks at it more closely this time, and realizes it looks like a sleeping dog curled up with its tail almost hiding its head. He will carry it with him always. Dance chooses the deep purple one; it's shaped quite erotically really, like the beautiful folds of a woman's mystery...a flower in its own right, though different from the one Tonks chose. It makes him think of the future, of regeneration and renewal. Shiver takes the smokey grey one, the one that seems to just be spirals upon spirals and curls. Smoke on smoke, he thinks, and while he does not know what it means, it is dear to him.
Elsbet lifts the eggy blue stone to her once more and cries a little. She can not say how much it means to her. "Ellie?" She smiles softly at Dance and wipes away the tear. "Geb, the Great Cackler, who laid the Egg from which was hatched the Universe." She laughs and says, "that's not exactly how the Egyptians thought of him, and how a male goose laid an egg I don't know," she says, her eyes glinting mischieviously, "but male seahorses carry the babies, so who am I to say the Egyptians are wrong?" She giggles madly because everyone's looking at her, and hides her face suddenly against Malfoy's chest, which makes him terribly happy. She recovers herself and apologises, but Dance tells her it's a perfect time for silliness.
Finally, she sighs and asks what should be done with the broken one, and he tells her, "bury it. Take it somewhere significant to you and bury it. Say something to someone who's gone ahead, and if they've heard you, something wondrous will happen." Remus almost hopes she'll offer it to someone, but he has the feeling she's thinking of the same person he is. To his surprise, Snape asks her, very softly, if he might have it, and of course she lets him take it. Gingerly he lifts the two halves of the stone, and looks again into its greenish-brown, mottled surface. He wonders if it had ever been carved, and if the carving vanished when its energy did, upon breaking. He places his stone under his robe, in the secret pocket inside his shirt, close to his heart. The broken stone he places carefully in a pocket in his robe.
His train of thought is interrupted suddenly by Malfoy's excited voice. "Ellie, look, there's two more wands in here!" She nudges him playfully and grins widely when she takes the last two wands out. They're a matched pair, and unlike the others they were made for a specific purpose. "These are craft wands! They're for knitting or weaving or something of that sort. And these aren't wood, they're bone. Antler, to be specific. Oh, these are very old, I feel." Malfoy and Snape watch them in her hands, and it seems to the two wizards that it's right, somehow, that she should have two wands. Remus asks to see them and she gives them up; he says they don't feel quite like true wands, but that an appropriately skilled Magical should be able to use them just as they would a wand crafted from wood, though prehaps not as well.
He hands them back to her and she takes one in each hand, and Tonks asks her why she doesn't hold them together, in the same hand. "Well, these are opposition wands. They're a matched pair, yes, but they came from the shed antlers of two different stags. They hated each other, and that enimity is still residual in these. That's essential, because if they were from the same stag, or two stags who weren't competitors, no work would get done. The wands would follow each other, you see?" She looks around the table at everyone, then laughs softly at their amused expressions. "You know more than you think you do about Wandlore, I think," Shiver says, and she grins.
"Not really...my mother had a pair of these, only hers were made from elk antlers. They were--" Elsbet pauses and sighs, "her mother's. She wove rugs with them. These," she holds them like a skilled artist, "were used to make fishing nets and such things. They're well-used, too." She places the first smooth, tan-colored wand in the box's lid at one end, then looks closely at the second. "Hmmmm...I think I know why these wands were retired." She eyes the tip of the wand. "This one lost the opposition, finally. The tip is cracked. When they crack like this, they can damage the piece you're crafting." She places the cracked wand in the lid at the other end.
She looks down into the box and finds there's one last thing. Quietly she asks, "who handled this box immediately before me?" Snape says that he did, and she sighs. "This is for you, then." She straightens and places the object on the table in front of him. "A Tarot card," he says, and she touches him softly. "My mother's sister read Tarot. I think she would say this is significant." She takes the slightest of steps back from him, then tells him to think about himself, about his life, and then turn the card over when he's ready. She excuses herself and goes into her room, then comes back after a minute or two with a notebook in her hand. "I wanted to learn Tarot," she says, "these notes took me years to compile." Snape nods and tells her that was why he grabbed it that night...he had a feeling she would want it.
She asks him if he's ready and he nods once, then turns the card over as one would turn a page. He lays it on the table before him, then stares at the card in silence. "The Nine of Wands," she says. His black eyes gaze into those of the figure on the card, and notes the items around it. He thinks perhaps the box and its contents are far more important than they had first believed. She opens her notebook and finds the appropriate page, then asks him if he would have her read, and again, he nods once. Elsbet reads clearly, though her voice does waver in places.
"Inner strength, stamina, and the will to go on despite impossible odds are at the center of the Nine of Wands. But this is not the same card of static defense that is found in the Seven of Wands. The Nine of Wands is more of a dynamic defense, and thus it is much more powerful." She pauses for a moment, seemingly to catch her breath, then continues. "Aleister Crowley pointed out that this card illustrates the aphorism 'change is stability'. In times of great difficulty and stress, this card shows you that you will always have strength to endure if you search for it deep inside of yourself.
You should expect difficulty when this card appears, but you should also expect to find a way to overcome it. Keep your power at the ready and be vigilant for opposition, always ready to defeat it. Identify your own power and be ready to use it in your defense. You should be aware, though, that combat is not always the best answer. Often, waiting is the only way to bring about victory. Beware also of waiting so long that you are still ready to fight long after the conflict has ended. It is often hard to tell whether a period of calm marks the beginning, middle, or the end of a storm. Holding on is admirable, but sometimes it is even more remarkable to let go.
This card often marks the final ordeal, the last hill that must be climbed or the last hurdle that must be cleared before the finish line. And it is the last obstacle that usually proves most dangerous, because it is a last ditch effort by whatever forces oppose you to stop you before you reach your goal at last. To surmount this obstacle you have to realize but one thing. You have made it this far, and this obstacle is no different that the others you have already defeated. Great glory lies ahead; reach down deep inside and give it your all.
Such strength can be found in everyone, though for some reason it only shows itself to us when we need it. The strength to proceed against all odds is not a force that can be invoked, but that must be earned through adversity and challenges of all sorts. It is only available when every other option has been explored, when every stone has been turned, when you feel you have nothing left but you still want to try once more. Then, admist the greatest of darknesses, your inner strength starts to shine, lighting the way to glory. And how brightly that light can shine when you need it to."
She looks at him and knows he's weeping inside; she's seen that expression before. She knows who he weeps for, she felt him tense when she read about holding on and letting go...and she knew who he was thinking of when she said the craft wands were from stag antler, and he flinched. Therion flinched as well, and so that was her confirmation. She asks him if he's alright and he tells her that he is, and she tells him he should keep the card. He asks her if she will keep it safe for him, and she places it in the notebook, then takes the book back to her room. She's in there only a moment, but when she returns to the dining room, Snape has gone outside.
She sees the back door close, and that Dance and Shiver, as well as both ravens, have gone with him, and Malfoy takes her into his arms. "He's alright, Ellie, they just need to chat about something. Shall we...all have a walk?" Tonks is up first and suggests they head over to The Chocolate Cat for some ice cream. Elsbet brightens a bit and says she wants to try the new flavors. "Pear, Ellie?" Tonks laughs and nudges her teasingly. "Pear flavored ice cream. You sure like weird things," she says, and Elsbet tugs at her sleeve. "Yeah, just look at the people I love..."
"Ellie, let's have a look at the other things," he says, rising, and Elsbet does the same. Carefully, she takes out the other items, looking at each one as she hands them to Malfoy, who looks at them, then passes them to Therion, and so they go around the table. Remus and Snape pay the most attention to them, checking each one as if looking for some special clue or hint as to their origin. They're beautiful little things, little sculptures that can fit perfectly in a hand, carved and shaped from different kinds of stone. There's one that seems to have split along an unseen fracture, so instead of passing it along like the rest of them, Elsbet gives it directly to Snape. They all end up in front of Snape in fact, who, after examining them all looks up at Remus and finds him deep in thought.
"Ceremonial objects, I believe. And you, Lupin?" Remus nods and leans forward on the table. "I agree, Severus. Very old, from the feel of them. Ellie," they look up at her and Malfoy, "did you feel anything from them?" She smiles and picks up the blue, egg-shaped one. "That they were loved, and handled often, but I don't relate to stone the same as I do to wood. Unless...well, unless it was alive once." Malfoy looks at her. "Living stone? Ah, yes...fossils," she grins at him and tells him, "right, Lucius, fossils, and petrified wood. Otherwise, the energy in them flows differently to me." She then asks Dance and Shiver if they recognize the objects, and Dance says, "yes...well, not those particular ones, but I have seen some similar, and you're right, Severus, Remus, they were ceremonial."
He grins crookedly. "Been about five hundred years though." Everyone exchanges glances, even Shiver is surprised, but Dance tells them, "well, these are not quite so old, but after everything Ellie has said, I do believe that box had been there for at least three hundred years. The memory from the Yew wand was the detail that stuck," he taps his head, "but I'll tell you that The Great Mother would know more about it. And those Hearth Stones," he smiles widely, "it's a grand thing to see some of them again." Ellie picks the blue eggy one up again, then asks if it is safe to give them. He chuckles. "Well, they're yours, Ellie, it's already decided."
She smiles and nods. "I know, but...I mean, is it safe for me to give them away?" Snape asks her, "Oddbit, why would you want to do that? They're supposed to be yours, there's a reason--" she caresses his cheek and he bites his lip. "These are for happiness, right?" Dance nods slightly, then she strokes Snape's hair. She looks into his eyes and whispers, "the love in your heart wasn't put there to stay; love isn't love 'til you give it away." His eyes glitter suddenly and she kisses his forehead. "This box came to me because of love, yes? I love these pretty things, and I love each of you. There are eight of us at this table, and eight of these still whole. I would like each of you to have one. A gift of my love."
She tells Snape to choose first, and he takes the pale green one. On its surface are animals who seem to chase each other. A horse, a deer, a wolf, some creature he's never seen before, and a large bird aloft above them. He holds it tightly and counts his blessings. Malfoy chooses the bright amber-colored one that looks like a duck with its head tucked under its wing. He doesn't know what it means yet, but it resonates for him, so he holds it close to his heart. Therion chooses the brown stone that looks like...well, a stone. At least, until you really look at it; held up to the light, you can see what appears to be a heart inside the stone. Tonks takes the pink stone, shot through with red and speckled lightly in places with white. Its shaped like a flower, like a tulip, and she loves it. It makes her think of a time without the threat of a Dark Lord hanging over their heads.
Remus takes the oddest shaped one. It's a deep crimson in color, and when he first held it, it felt as if it belonged in his hand. He looks at it more closely this time, and realizes it looks like a sleeping dog curled up with its tail almost hiding its head. He will carry it with him always. Dance chooses the deep purple one; it's shaped quite erotically really, like the beautiful folds of a woman's mystery...a flower in its own right, though different from the one Tonks chose. It makes him think of the future, of regeneration and renewal. Shiver takes the smokey grey one, the one that seems to just be spirals upon spirals and curls. Smoke on smoke, he thinks, and while he does not know what it means, it is dear to him.
Elsbet lifts the eggy blue stone to her once more and cries a little. She can not say how much it means to her. "Ellie?" She smiles softly at Dance and wipes away the tear. "Geb, the Great Cackler, who laid the Egg from which was hatched the Universe." She laughs and says, "that's not exactly how the Egyptians thought of him, and how a male goose laid an egg I don't know," she says, her eyes glinting mischieviously, "but male seahorses carry the babies, so who am I to say the Egyptians are wrong?" She giggles madly because everyone's looking at her, and hides her face suddenly against Malfoy's chest, which makes him terribly happy. She recovers herself and apologises, but Dance tells her it's a perfect time for silliness.
Finally, she sighs and asks what should be done with the broken one, and he tells her, "bury it. Take it somewhere significant to you and bury it. Say something to someone who's gone ahead, and if they've heard you, something wondrous will happen." Remus almost hopes she'll offer it to someone, but he has the feeling she's thinking of the same person he is. To his surprise, Snape asks her, very softly, if he might have it, and of course she lets him take it. Gingerly he lifts the two halves of the stone, and looks again into its greenish-brown, mottled surface. He wonders if it had ever been carved, and if the carving vanished when its energy did, upon breaking. He places his stone under his robe, in the secret pocket inside his shirt, close to his heart. The broken stone he places carefully in a pocket in his robe.
His train of thought is interrupted suddenly by Malfoy's excited voice. "Ellie, look, there's two more wands in here!" She nudges him playfully and grins widely when she takes the last two wands out. They're a matched pair, and unlike the others they were made for a specific purpose. "These are craft wands! They're for knitting or weaving or something of that sort. And these aren't wood, they're bone. Antler, to be specific. Oh, these are very old, I feel." Malfoy and Snape watch them in her hands, and it seems to the two wizards that it's right, somehow, that she should have two wands. Remus asks to see them and she gives them up; he says they don't feel quite like true wands, but that an appropriately skilled Magical should be able to use them just as they would a wand crafted from wood, though prehaps not as well.
He hands them back to her and she takes one in each hand, and Tonks asks her why she doesn't hold them together, in the same hand. "Well, these are opposition wands. They're a matched pair, yes, but they came from the shed antlers of two different stags. They hated each other, and that enimity is still residual in these. That's essential, because if they were from the same stag, or two stags who weren't competitors, no work would get done. The wands would follow each other, you see?" She looks around the table at everyone, then laughs softly at their amused expressions. "You know more than you think you do about Wandlore, I think," Shiver says, and she grins.
"Not really...my mother had a pair of these, only hers were made from elk antlers. They were--" Elsbet pauses and sighs, "her mother's. She wove rugs with them. These," she holds them like a skilled artist, "were used to make fishing nets and such things. They're well-used, too." She places the first smooth, tan-colored wand in the box's lid at one end, then looks closely at the second. "Hmmmm...I think I know why these wands were retired." She eyes the tip of the wand. "This one lost the opposition, finally. The tip is cracked. When they crack like this, they can damage the piece you're crafting." She places the cracked wand in the lid at the other end.
She looks down into the box and finds there's one last thing. Quietly she asks, "who handled this box immediately before me?" Snape says that he did, and she sighs. "This is for you, then." She straightens and places the object on the table in front of him. "A Tarot card," he says, and she touches him softly. "My mother's sister read Tarot. I think she would say this is significant." She takes the slightest of steps back from him, then tells him to think about himself, about his life, and then turn the card over when he's ready. She excuses herself and goes into her room, then comes back after a minute or two with a notebook in her hand. "I wanted to learn Tarot," she says, "these notes took me years to compile." Snape nods and tells her that was why he grabbed it that night...he had a feeling she would want it.
She asks him if he's ready and he nods once, then turns the card over as one would turn a page. He lays it on the table before him, then stares at the card in silence. "The Nine of Wands," she says. His black eyes gaze into those of the figure on the card, and notes the items around it. He thinks perhaps the box and its contents are far more important than they had first believed. She opens her notebook and finds the appropriate page, then asks him if he would have her read, and again, he nods once. Elsbet reads clearly, though her voice does waver in places.
"Inner strength, stamina, and the will to go on despite impossible odds are at the center of the Nine of Wands. But this is not the same card of static defense that is found in the Seven of Wands. The Nine of Wands is more of a dynamic defense, and thus it is much more powerful." She pauses for a moment, seemingly to catch her breath, then continues. "Aleister Crowley pointed out that this card illustrates the aphorism 'change is stability'. In times of great difficulty and stress, this card shows you that you will always have strength to endure if you search for it deep inside of yourself.
You should expect difficulty when this card appears, but you should also expect to find a way to overcome it. Keep your power at the ready and be vigilant for opposition, always ready to defeat it. Identify your own power and be ready to use it in your defense. You should be aware, though, that combat is not always the best answer. Often, waiting is the only way to bring about victory. Beware also of waiting so long that you are still ready to fight long after the conflict has ended. It is often hard to tell whether a period of calm marks the beginning, middle, or the end of a storm. Holding on is admirable, but sometimes it is even more remarkable to let go.
This card often marks the final ordeal, the last hill that must be climbed or the last hurdle that must be cleared before the finish line. And it is the last obstacle that usually proves most dangerous, because it is a last ditch effort by whatever forces oppose you to stop you before you reach your goal at last. To surmount this obstacle you have to realize but one thing. You have made it this far, and this obstacle is no different that the others you have already defeated. Great glory lies ahead; reach down deep inside and give it your all.
Such strength can be found in everyone, though for some reason it only shows itself to us when we need it. The strength to proceed against all odds is not a force that can be invoked, but that must be earned through adversity and challenges of all sorts. It is only available when every other option has been explored, when every stone has been turned, when you feel you have nothing left but you still want to try once more. Then, admist the greatest of darknesses, your inner strength starts to shine, lighting the way to glory. And how brightly that light can shine when you need it to."
She looks at him and knows he's weeping inside; she's seen that expression before. She knows who he weeps for, she felt him tense when she read about holding on and letting go...and she knew who he was thinking of when she said the craft wands were from stag antler, and he flinched. Therion flinched as well, and so that was her confirmation. She asks him if he's alright and he tells her that he is, and she tells him he should keep the card. He asks her if she will keep it safe for him, and she places it in the notebook, then takes the book back to her room. She's in there only a moment, but when she returns to the dining room, Snape has gone outside.
She sees the back door close, and that Dance and Shiver, as well as both ravens, have gone with him, and Malfoy takes her into his arms. "He's alright, Ellie, they just need to chat about something. Shall we...all have a walk?" Tonks is up first and suggests they head over to The Chocolate Cat for some ice cream. Elsbet brightens a bit and says she wants to try the new flavors. "Pear, Ellie?" Tonks laughs and nudges her teasingly. "Pear flavored ice cream. You sure like weird things," she says, and Elsbet tugs at her sleeve. "Yeah, just look at the people I love..."